Super interview...learned a great deal.

One piece of feedback...as a paying passenger, I absolutely applaud CO for how they manage the F/BF cabin. I for one, on a long haul flight, don't want to buy a ticket on a long haul flight and wonder, "will I make the upgrade or not?"

Having sane prices for that cabin makes it make sense to purchase the product...and therefore alleviate that stress point.

Good stuff.

Very good sore spot to recall. Quite happy I was able to get a biz seat on QF's A380 under the old [ie. reasonable] award chart.

I am in the same boat. I am fine with how CO manages the front of the plane now - particularly with the BF product. ^

Exactly. I look forward to seeing the new reward charts.

I agree. I liked what Scott said about BF waitlists eventually clearing, too. The ability to waitlist on a mileage award is a very valuable plus, IMO.

I know that most people want the assurance at the time they redeem awards that they will be in BF, but I think that CO's waitlisting process is a great way for them to allow us to redeem BF upgrade awards without sacrificing revenue.

But based upon what I experienced flying LAX-EWR-FCO a few weeks ago, I think that CO needs to re-look at how they manage the inventory to reflect the new economic reality. Both 764 BF cabins went out with 9 or 10 empty seats (and the EWR-FCO flight had at least 2 non-revs in BF), and my upgrades only cleared 3-4 weeks in advance, despite wide open BF cabins up until that point.

I know of at least 2 people who wanted to take my exact same flights who wanted to upgrade with miles, but since they could not confirm the upgrades at the time of booking, they ended up redeeming miles for free J tickets on VS and Alitalia, at great cost to CO, I'm sure.

Perhaps CO could reserve some seats on each BF flight for elites to use for mileage redemption, as we are the ones who are the most likely to find alternate solutions which will cost CO more in the long run in our efforts to avoid Y on longhauls at all costs.

Just a heads up -- the way I (poorly) understand the booking curve for the front cabin is that the full J/C seats are sold at the very end of the flight and do not lend themselves easily to forecasting. Thus if there's any doubt, you'd want to leave the seat open for a potential 3-6k (one way!) ticket as that's a significant chunk of change for the airline. Anyways, while it's frustrating not to clear in advance, I can't blame for the current system, especially now that upgrades can clear at the gate.

This is just my personal opinion but I have a hard time seeing how a SWUs/instrument/etc. would create this -- especially if the expectations were managed correctly.

CO already has a way to control upgrades to BF (via the upgrade bucket) and has allowed mileage upgrades for the past (two?) decades. Likewise the OnePass base - and arguably the top-tier more so than the rest - are already familiar with the upgrade schema, clearings and co-pays.

For example, if CO allowed customers to get around paying the mileage requirement (the copay would still apply) for a BF upgrade they'd still be operating under the existing system of upgrades (which customers, especially long-haul the elites) already know, they'd still be managing the revenue from the front cabin (by rev-management controlling the upgrade bucket), they'd still get the cash from the copays, any fare could be upgraded (there's no minimum fare requirement, just like it works now) and they'd be more in "alignment" with their other *A partners (AC/LH/UA.)

That said, I'm just a FT'er and suspect there's a few compelling reasons we just don't know or understand that would quickly whittle away the simplicity (and usefulness) of such an idea. Oh well, c'est la vie.

It's due to the Czech heritage in southeast Texas and the Hill Country. Most of the area was settled by German and Czech farmers in the early 1900s and kolaches are a food item the Czechs brought over.

There are a lot of bakeries that make actual kolaches in the Hill Country (what Shipley's and other donut shops call "kolaches" are closer to klobasnek since for the most part they use meat. CO's item would be considered that as well (but the dough being a crescent roll immediately disqualifies it).

If you want to try real kolaches, I suggest Weikel's Bakery in La Grange, Hruska's in Ellinger, Czech Stop in West, TX, or Kountry Bakery in Hallettsville. All are very good.

Impressed by the interview, and the participants. I've only heard 1/2 of #21, yet I've now downloaded all 21, and synced them to my iPhone. Looking forward to my commute home daily for a while, which says something!

if they do implement SWU, they could do it a number of ways

• Give certs to waive copays, leaving only miles as requirements
• Opposite of above (waive copays only)
• Offer a "discount" of miles and/or co-pay for a certain amount of times

The third option might work. That way people with lower fares can say "oh I can upgrade for much cheaper now" while those with higher fares can say "free upgrades!".

Of course, this will need to be able to be done through the web. And they may need to raise plat to 100k to offset program expenses.

Thanks for the endorsement on Weikel's and Hruska's. We drive to Houston from Austin about 8-10 times a year and usually take 71. When we drive to DFW area we always stop at the Czech Stop and it will be nice to have a similar place for our more eastern trips. Now if only there was as good a place in Brenham or Giddings for when 290 is essential.

Agreed. I've downloaded all the podcasts, although I'd prefer more discussion of AA and less UA.
I listen to NPR's Planet Money, their 7am news summary and the Economist podcasts when I'm walking the dog and driving to and from work. It really makes my iPod pay off.

I think the core question is who the SWUs are designed to compete with. DL SWUs are apparently worthless, AA eVIPs are awesome, and UAs apparently fall somewhere in the middle.

I would say if the SWUs are going to be more like DL, they're worse than having them because you'll probably adjust your program to have a higher mileage or copay requirement for traditional upgrades at the same time and people will feel worse off than before. If you do them AA style, great, but that's the most expensive route.

And the Czech Bakery in Caldwell, as well as the Valero or Buc-Eee's Stations, which have very acceptable Kolaches if you're in a bind. Mmmmm....kolaches.

Too many kolaches=belly-aches.

Another consideration here: when I've flown full-fare BF, one of the main benefits is the ability to change departure/return dates at the last minute, and still have the BF seats available on the new flights. CO must keep at least a few seats for last-minute changes.

A lot of them that I've had tend to be spicy too....which makes it a major offender for the stomach

A bit back on topic....I hope that I never run into the turkey kolache on a CO flight